Bryson City – The 2021 season may go down as one of the craziest and perhaps best in the long and storied history of the state’s most decorated conference. Going into last Friday four teams were within reach of the top sport in the conference. Murphy, Robbinsville and Cherokee all had one loss, while the Maroon Devils entered play with the only undefeated record in conference play.
Murphy came to Swain and kept their hopes alive with a thrilling 28-21 win over Swain, dropping Swain from the top spot and forcing a 3 way tie.
The Maroon Devils got on the scoreboard first with an opening drive that took 8 plays and covered 63 yards. Carson Taylor took an option pitch from Gabe Lillard and scored from 4 yards out. The Gavin Lanning point after gave Swain a 7-0 lead.
Swain looked like they would break the game wide open, as they drove to the Bulldog 14 yard line and looked as though they would go up 14-0. But disaster struck as the Devils fumbled. Murphy recovered the fumble and just three plays later struck in typical Murphy fashion as Juan Allen used his speed and one cutback to race 86 yards and tie the game at 7 as the first quarter expired.
Murphy took the lead on their next possession. Again it was Allen, but this time from 9 yards out, giving Murphy a 14-7 lead with 6:19 left in the second quarter.
The Maroon Devils answered with a 10 play 63 yard drive. With only 1:33 left before halftime Swain came up with a big play of their own. Gabe Lillard was flushed out of the pocket and rolled to his right and threw a strike to the back of the endzone where Cooper Hyatt had separated himself from the defense by only the narrowest of margins. Hyatt made a fantastic catch and held on as he was driven to the ground for the Devils touchdown. The Lillard to Hyatt gem covered 22 yards. Gavin Lanning tied the game with the extra point.
It looked like both teams would be content to go to the locker room tied at 14. Faced with a 3rd and 1 from midfield the Bulldogs ran a quarterback lead off their right side and it broke wide open as Kellen Rumfelt raced 49 yards for the go ahead scored with only 47 seconds left before the half.
Both teams exchanged possessions in the third quarter with neither scoring.
Murphy would extend their lead to 28-14 on their first drive of the fourth quarter. Rumfelt hit Payton McCracken in the endzone for a 5 yard touchdown pass.
Swain cut the lead back to seven on their next possession. Gabe Lillard hit Gaige Jones for an 11 yard touchdown pass to culminate a 5 play 56 yard drive. Jones made a spectacular diving catch for the score. Lanning again hit the point after cutting the Murphy lead to 28-21.
Murphy was able to run out the remaining 4:33 to secure the win.
The Maroon Devil defense gave up a season high 421 yards of total offense to the Dogs. Swain gave up 219 yards rushing, but over half of that total came on two runs. It was through the air where the Bulldogs were most effective. Senior quarterback Kellen Rumfelt threw for 202 yards on 13 of 17 passing. He found Payton McCracken for 8 of his completions.
Swain rushed for 239 yards on 40 carries. Donnavin Groenewold finished with a season high 97 yards on 7 carries, while Gabe Lillard had 70 yards on 13 carries. Lillard was 3 of 10 through the air, with 2 of the 3 passes good for Maroon Devil touchdowns. Cooper Hyatt had 2 catches for 46 yards while Gaige Jones had 1 catch for 11 yards. Both touchdown catches by Hyatt and Jones were as good as you will see in high school football.
Carson Taylor spearheaded the Devils defense with a game high 15 total tackles. Fellow inside linebacker Lucas Sutton racked up 9 combined tackles for the Devils.
With the loss the Devils are now tied with Robbinsville and Murphy at the top of the Smoky Mountain Conference standings.